18685: (hermantin)Sun-Sentinel- Haiti crisis worsens as organizers lose control of anti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Haiti crisis worsens as organizers lose control of anti-Aristide
demonstrators



By Tim Collie

February 16, 2004

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- A demonstration against Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide degenerated into a rock-throwing melee Sunday after
organizers lost control of thousands of protesters.

A disagreement over the route of the march provoked hundreds of angry
anti-Aristide protesters to converge on a major commercial avenue that had
not been approved by police as a march route. They then skirmished with
police and pro-Aristide partisans.

At one point, opposition leader Andy Apaid was walking by himself blocks
away from followers who were being attacked by Aristide supporters and
policemen trying to quell violence by both sides. Apaid insisted on marching
down the police-approved route even though no one followed him.

But many opposition marchers said they felt they should be able to march
farther down Route de Delmas, even though their leaders had not agreed to it
in negotiations with police. The march began down Delmas but was then
supposed to turn down a winding side street to avoid blocks that have often
been the scenes of previous protest violence with so-called chimères,
staunch radical supporters of Aristide who often harass the opposition.

The failed march marked another setback by an urban opposition group, the
Democratic Platform, that has been stymied since fighting between the
government and rebels broke out in Gonaïves, Haiti's fourth-largest city,
two weeks ago. Since then violent demonstrations have spread to 10 other
Haitian cities and towns, and reports by Haitian media and human rights
groups have put deaths as high as 50.

The group, an umbrella organization of political, business and student
groups, contends Aristide should step down over contested 2000 legislative
elections that were swept by the Lavalas Party. Aristide has refused,
despite international criticism and growing violence in Haiti among more
radical opponents of his government in many parts of Haiti.

Because Delmas is a major thoroughfare with wide avenues, it was the route
of choice among angry marchers chanting slogans demanding Aristide's
resignation. By noon Sunday, two hours into the demonstration, shooting
broke out, and police began lobbing tear gas at demonstrators who were
hurling large rocks and garbage into the street to make barricades.

A peaceful start

There were no immediate reports of injuries, a police spokesman said.
Elsewhere, two Dominican soldiers were killed on the Dominican border at
Dajabon on Saturday, and their weapons were taken from them. It was unclear
who was responsible for the killings, but in recent days a force of 20 men
led by exiled paramilitary leader Louis-Jodel Chamblain crossed the border,
The Associated Press reported.

Sunday's march began with a largely peaceful crowd of several thousand
people who descended down Route de Delmas from Place Boyer, a small park in
the middle-class city of Petionville just north of Haiti's capital of
Port-au-Prince. Apaid and other organizers had agreed to a march route of
several miles snaking down hillside streets above the capital.

"I have to keep my word, and this is the route that we agreed upon with the
police," said Apaid, who had a Haitian flag draped around his shoulders. "We
are a nonviolent group, and we have to keep our word. But I can understand
that the base, the younger people in the opposition, feel they should have
the right to go where they want."

But the younger, more militant marchers declined to follow Apaid and made
their way farther down Delmas until rocks began landing in the crowd. Police
riot teams responded by firing tear gas canisters and warning shots into the
air.

"The government wanted us to go down this side street because they know that
will cut off people and minimize the march," said Alex Maurice, 26, an
economics student at Haiti's national university. "They squeeze the
protesters and make us look smaller. But the people want to march down
Delmas, where everyone can see and join us."

`Lack of leadership'

Haitian police authorities called the demonstration chaotic and blamed Apaid
and other organizers for losing control of the crowd. Several people were
arrested for trying to erect barricades in Delmas, police said, but they
could not determine whose side they were on during the march." It clearly
wasn't planned well, and that was the problem. I don't see how that is our
fault," said Michael Lucius, general inspector with the national police.
"Today what happened is there was simply a lack of leadership at the level
of the organizers. We set up a route, and they refused to follow it."

Rebels control Gonaïves and several small towns, but their violent tactics
have prompted opposition leaders to distance themselves from the fray. But
the largely young, male crowd that marched Sunday praised the rebels in
Gonaïves and even called for their help in Haiti's capital.

"Hello, hello, hello, Gonaïves," several dozen protesters chanted at one
point, "Can't you see our blood is flowing? We are in danger here."

But opposition leaders have insisted that they have no links with the rebels
in Gonaïves. Leaders, though, have said they think that the rebels do have
the right to bear arms against the violent tactics of Aristide's government,
which originally armed gangs to quell the opposition.

"I'm not interested in what is happening in Gonaïves right now; I'm
concerned with what is happening in Port-au-Prince," said Charles Baker, an
opposition leader with the Group of 184, a coalition of business, trade and
grass-roots groups aligned against Aristide. "Every night there is violence
here in Port-au-Prince. Just this week six of our supporters were killed in
Cité Soleil. That is the real issue.

"Today, we had problems because we could not agree on a route with the base
of the movement, who are very emotional and wanted to march on. But we will
schedule another march. That's what we do, we march."

But other opposition leaders said growing anger may force them to schedule a
general strike and shut down the country.

"People are getting desperate and they want change, not violent change, but
change," said Montes Joseph, a trade union leader. "We're seriously thinking
about asking business leaders not to order more goods, to close their
businesses, to shut down the country. That may have to happen soon if this
current situation continues much longer."

By late afternoon Sunday, Delmas had been largely cleared of debris and was
crowded with traffic and throngs of shoppers.

Tim Collie can be reached at tcollie@sun-sentinel.com or at 954-356-4573.
Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

_________________________________________________________________
Find great local high-speed Internet access value at the MSN High-Speed
Marketplace. http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200360ave/direct/01/